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J S Bach St John Passion
Saturday, 12th November 2005
St George's, Bristol
Peter Leech Conductor
Frideswide Ensemble
Rachel Chapman Soprano
Michael George Jesus
James Gilchrist Evangelist
Timothy Travers-Brown Countertenor
'VERSATILE CHOIR DISPLAY PASSION'
'The opening chorus was a powerful occasion and throughout, the choir presented singing that was superbly flexible and versatile - sinsiter and aggressive in the choruses at the Crucifixion, powerful, but tender in the chorales....'
John Packwood, Bristol Evening Post, November 2005
Programme Notes:
In Hearing Bach's Passions (OUP, 2005) leading Bach scholar Daniel Melamed begins his first chapter by saying that ‘few issues in eighteenth-century music have attracted as much attention as the size and composition of Bach's vocal forces'. It is true that our western performing traditions have inherited the use of large choirs for eighteenth century music, even though recent research has suggested Bach did not perform his compositions in this way. Melamed admits that a performance of a Bach passion by a small group of principal singers and similarly small group of supporting voices is obviously very different from one that uses a larger chorus in the roles of the choir and the soloists.
The arguments of Melamed, Joshua Rifkin and others have led to fierce debate at conferences and a number of highly-publicised recordings. They have also led to prominent scholars showering abuse on those who persist with larger-scale performances of Bach's works. If small-scale performances were to become an absolute dictum on concert platforms, many choirs would be denied the opportunity to sing the hauntingly sublime choruses of the great Passion settings. In defence of larger forces it should also be pointed out that even in the community of scholar-conductors contingents larger than one-voice-per-part are sometimes favoured in 'authentic' recordings using period instruments. Performances at the BBC Proms frequently involve vast forces for Bach (necessitated by the vast Albert Hall acoustic) and many Bach choirs in England directed by conductors with extensive experience in the world of music scholarship do not necessarily feel uncomfortable giving their choirs the opportunity to sing Bach.
There is probably little point in presenting a detailed analysis of the case for and against using larger choral and orchestral forces here, but those of us fighting the challenges of a cut-throat music industry with, where possible, pragmatic music-making, might at least be comforted by Melamed's admission that in a single-chorus work like the St John Passion (the original vocal material for which consisted of a set of principal 'concertist' parts for arias, recitatives, choruses and chorales, shorter parts for 'ripienists' and very brief parts for small roles) the listener 'can still discern the roles and relationships of the various forces, even in a performance that uses a large choir and distinct soloists.'
Most of the important composers in German lands contributed Passion compositions to mainstream choral repertoire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, both in Catholic and Protestant realms. In the Lutheran tradition in particular chorales were added to the narrative, sometimes as a way of involving the congregation in proceedings. Towards the end of the seventeenth century styles of lyric drama popular in Italy found their way across the Alps into German Passion settings, which eventually grew into large-scale works comprising contemplative songs, arias, chorales and recitatives all based on biblical passages.
By 1700 full librettos were being constructed for Passions by prominent ecclesiastical writers, poets, theorists and composers. Two of the leading cities in the development of the Passion were Hamburg and Leipzig, although their respective town Directors of Music provided very different Passion models. In Hamburg, composers were expected to provide operas and festive music, art forms which heavily influenced their church compositions. In Leipzig there was no opera house and the town traditions were generally more conservative. The prime concern of the cantor of St. Thomas' (as musical director of the city as well) was to provide Passion settings for important Sunday services in the main churches. It was not until the tenure of Bach's predecessor Johann Kuhnau that Passions with polyphonic music were introduced, settings before this time having been generally monophonic with occasional homophonic hymns. Kuhnau's models provided the starting point for Bach's exploration of the genre, the roots of which lay in his work at Köthen.
In Köthen Bach had utilised many forms of accompanied church music for services, and he would call upon his experience early in his tenure at Leipzig. Firstly, and most importantly in a tradition which placed considerable emphasis on the written word, he had to determine the appropriate texts to be used as a basis for the St John Passion. The central focus of the work is the liturgy for Good Friday, specifically, Chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of StJohn. These Bach supplemented with select verses from St Matthew. Texts were chosen from various extant poetical settings of the Passion which Bach then rewrote himself to suit his musical needs, in the process creating a dramatic construct rich in pathos, contemplation and the poignant ideals of Lutheran theology. The primary literary sources were the writings of Barthold Brockes (a Hamburg city councillor) and Christian Postel, whose St John Passion had also been set to music by Handel. Brockes' textual influence is particularly evident in the arias 'Von den Stricken', 'Eilt ihr angefochtnen Seelen', 'Mein theurer Heiland', 'Zerfliesse, mein Herze' and in the final chorus 'Ruht wohl'. Other texts, such as the chorale 'Durch dein Gefängnis', are taken directly from Postel. Sometimes Bach felt the need to change only one word, whilst at other times he left out small sections or rearranged the order of verses, but he rarely departed entirely from the inherent structure of the original texts. The conductor and scholar Nikolaus Harnoncourt viewed the St John Passion as a large palindromic construct with a musical design akin to the wings of a baroque palace. The central pivot, or living space of the piece, is the chorale 'Durch dein Gefängnis' which explains either side sit choruses composed in identical or very similar design, such as 'Wir haben ein Gesetz' and 'Lässest du diesen los', followed by 'Kreuzige, kreuzige' and 'Weg, weg', folding outwards ultimately to 'Sei gegrüsset, lieber jüdenkönig' and 'Schreibe nicht der Jüden König'. At the extreme ends of this structure are the chorales 'Ach grosser König' and ‘In meines Herzens Grunde'.
The world of musical scholarship has led to a vast number of theories put forward as to the way in which Bach's music might have been performed. Over the last thirty years especially the possible musical resources available to Bach in Leipzig have been researched, scrutinised and debated with almost clinical precision and at far greater length than could ever be adequately summarised here. As well as the precise use of ‘concertists’ and ‘ripientists’ for solos and tuttis, musicologists have debated numerous other questions, such as the case for and against use of harpsichord and/or organ and whether or not the congregation sang Bach's chorales. Entire conferences have been devoted to these issues, and the last word on the subject, it seems, may never be written. Regardless of the various arguments, what is clear is that Bach's musical forces were never the same from week to week or month to month. Sometimes the voices of the boy choristers broke, sometimes instrumentalists were away or undertaking other one reason why there are at least four versions of the St. John Passion derived from performances of 1724, 1725, 1732 and 1749. The surviving sets of parts from these events are unfortunately not complete, so there are often as many questions raised as there are answers.
Bach's orchestra might sometimes have included a lute, at other times a harpsichord, sometimes using oboes da caccia, at other times using oboes d'amore. Whatever the circumstances. Bach overcame the regular problems at St Thomas' with a consummate ability to adapt and a fine musical sensibility which provided subtlety and variety even under pressurised circumstances. Different groups of instruments are used in each aria in the St John Passion and Bach's understanding of the texts is reflected in a highly rhetorical approach to word setting and instrumental accompaniment with musical 'figuren' (figures) and 'affekten' (affects) available and readily understood in his time such as rising and falling scales for waves or pointilistic short notes for the sharp cracking of a whip. Even the opening orchestral tutti, with the weeping dissonances of the oboes intertwined above a restless, tempestuous sea of string semiquavers gives us an inkling that all is not quite right in the world and that a portentous story is about to be told.
Bach's music, however it may be performed, endures many things regardless of circumstances. Its almost divine musical structure is not necessarily weakened or strengthened by smaller or larger forces. Perhaps what is more important is the recognition of its greatness in the art of harmony, counterpoint, melodic invention and expression. How the music is received in a particular acoustic is also just as important as the number of performers involved, for there is little point in using a tiny ensemble in a great Cathedral, especially when the acoustic of St Thomas', Leipzig is more akin in size to the average English parish church. Forkel, Bach's early biographer, reminds us that the composer's ability, with his experienced keen ear, to adapt pieces of music to different acoustics, knew no limits. Bach was also an accurate conductor and always sure of the right tempo which, in the words of the composer's son Karl Philipp Emanuel, 'he usually took very fast'. Given suitably competent musical forces, large or small, there is no doubt that Bach would have created a special performance, wherever he was.
© Peter Leech 2005